There's a catch, of course: the new price is only available for the next six weeks. Woollies is simply absorbing the 17.5 per cent VAT due on each download itself as a loss-leader to encourage sales.

Evidence from similar price-cutting schemes put in place by other music providers suggests that Woollies' move will indeed increase the number of downloads from its online music store, [email protected] Whether the uptake is sustainable after the price returns to 79p a track is open to question, however.

Woollies claimed the temporary "best price ever" made [email protected] the cheapest digital music provider in the UK, but Wippit was still charging 29p for a small selection of songs and 49p for others last time we looked.

Still, the High Street retailer said it expects other services to follow its lead - though it said so primarily because it hopes such a move on their part would validate its own. Woolworths' new channels director Anthony Moore pledged to support the six-week price reduction with "an extensive online and in-store advertising campaign as well as slots on commercial radio and a flyer campaign", which can't help but raise the public's awareness of music download services in general.